SES cuts staff, offices
June 1, 2020
By Chris Forrester
SES, as largely expected under its ‘Simplify and Amplify’ cost-savings programme, is to restructure its operations globally. As part of the scheme it will consolidate many of its European offices into its Luxembourg HQ.
SES plans to close its offices in Brussels, central London, the Isle of Man, Warsaw and Zurich – redistributing activities in these locations to other offices in Kiev, Stockholm, Stockley Park in London and The Hague as well as its headquarters in Luxembourg.
A SES statement said: “In addition to consolidating SES’s global footprint and streamlining operating functions, other restructuring and delayering is underway including the removal of numerous open positions. SES has launched a compelling voluntary phased retirement programme and is retraining and realigning resources internally towards high-value future market opportunities and to bolster its position in cloud, mobility and other emerging verticals. In aggregate, these changes will impact between 10 per cent and 15 per cent of its global employee base. Given that a number of these changes will impact employees in Luxembourg, SES has engaged its personnel representatives to discuss the implementation of a social plan.”
“In this rapidly evolving market, it is important that SES remains an agile business partner for our customers,” said Steve Collar, CEO/SES. “Simplify & Amplify is a transformational undertaking that will streamline our business, drive collaboration, and improve efficiency. We are making these changes thoughtfully, ensuring that, wherever possible, we redeploy our talent within the company and minimise the impact to our global workforce while enhancing our ability to support and serve our global customer base.”